Snap spikes after releasing its World Lenses feature (SNAP)

Jonathan Garber

Apr. 18, 2017, 11:52 AM

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Shares of Snap, the parent company of messenger app Snapchat, are higher by 3.16% at $20.57 a share on Tuesday after the company released its World Lenses feature, which lets users place virtual objects onto real objects in the world around them.

Tuesday's gain has Snap shares trading at a one-week high after once again holding their own near the $20 level.

Things haven't gone so well for Snap shares since their March 2 debut. The first trade occured at $24 after pricing at $17. The stock hit an all-time high of $27.09 on March 3, but has been struggling ever since.

Snap received several "sell" ratings early on as analysts questioned its ability to deal with competition from bigger companies.

"Investors in Snap will be exposed to an upstart facing aggressive competition from much larger companies, with a core user base that is not growing by much and which is only relatively elusive," Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group, wrote as he placed a $10 target on the stock the day Snap went public.

After putting in a high the day after its IPO, Snap tumbled nearly 30% in the following weeks before receiving a deluge of bullish ratings from much of Wall Street, including its underwriters.

Here's a rundown of those calls:

Goldman Sachs: Buy, $27 price target

Morgan Stanley: Overweight, $28 price target

Citi: Buy, $27 price target

RBC: Outperform, $31 price target

Jefferies: Buy, $30 price target

Oppenheimer: Market perform

Credit Suisse: Outperform, $30 price target

UBS: Neutral, $24 price target

Stifel: Hold, $24 price target

Cowen: Outperform, $26 price target

Snap was able to ride the momentum of those ratings, moving back up to $24.40 a share on March 27. Since then, however, the stock has pressed back towards the post-IPO low of $18.90 as the company has had to deal with companies like Facebook cloning some of its ideas.